A time capsule of the greatest financial mania in the history of mankind, told in real-time by regular folks and patriots. May future generations better understand the madness of crowds, and how power and money corrupt.

People will re-discover the pleasure of leisure time with the family or friends playing Bridge, Chess, Checkers, Backgammon, Go, Poker, Monopoly, Clue, Cribbage and perhaps other games of note, without the electronic gadgets and having to work 70 to 80 hours per week to support a house that they really could not afford.

People will understand that all that money they spent (including me)went straight to China and elsewhere along with the jobs Clinton sent.

That we have to learn to save and be aware of a rainy day and listen to people who are HPers and try to tell you a friggin year before it hits what is going to happen.

Oh and the best (for now anyway) bankers, mortgage lenders and real estate agents can't sell 750 thousand dollar houses to illegal immigrants who get paid by the weight and not by the hour and once a crop goes bad and there is no paycheck the house won't go into foreclosure. Well in about 5 years anyway. The mess from this round will take forever to clear out. Also exposed is the seedy ruthless side of the financial market who will screw the American people for the almighty dollar which now isn't worth much because of the greed and evil involved. Can't wait for this mess to finally roll out and be done with because I did nothing to add to this finasco but I am paying like I was a mortgage lending to non english speaking foreigners (there were all kind of people signing up for these loans from every nation on earth) house horders, flippers and newbie market newcomers driving up the prices to keep those dividend checks coming in to keep on affording those lifestyes.

One day maybe we will get back to quit trying to keep up with the jones and showing off and thinking we are better than someone because of a house and car. Oh well it is okay to dream. Maybe we will quit judging our neighbors by the car they drive and have a little compassion if they struggle but keep persevering. There was a time when people actually cared about each other but with the arrival of others to the shores of America who only care about making lots of money, maintaining their own cultures and communities within America's walls, not bothering to intergrate but demand rights fought for by Blacks (during the civil right movements)but hate the very people who helped them be able to have those rights. Maybe people will quit saying they will never vote for Barack Obama because he is black because what they don't know now is that now everyone who was born in America to foriegn parents will now be looked at for thier views instead of their race. Maybe now politicians will now look more like the country they represent rather than the people they represent. I thought the pictures of the indigent people in Louisiana during Katrina exposed a lot of America's dirty and quiet secret kept from the rest of world started it. The election of Bobby Jendle (?) in Louisiana and now the acceptance of Obama will now finish the expose' and for once and for all we can move on the continuing of becoming one of the greatest countries on earth. That is what this nasty real estate market started a return to the past when people had no choice but to care. Donate to your local food bank we are going to need it. By the way I am black as you can probably tell, I love this country even though it doesn't love me, and I wish white people and the like would quit telling us to go back to Africa and calling us names we have been in this country since the 1600's and helped build this country. Not all blacks are like the ones you see on TV and not all hispanics and whites and others are like what is portrayed on TV. White america keeps forgetting they stole blacks from Africa and have spent generations keeping them uneducated, poor and underserved. We have no past and absolutely no ties to Africa. Just like they have very few ties from the European countries they came from. Just by the virtue of being white they were able to be accepted by this society unlike blacks who have been systematicly kept out of mainstream society just because of skin color and nothing else. I think HPers are some of the most racist (me too with certain races and because of their attitudes but I am the most discrimated against but am more accepting that most races in the USA and that is a damn shame)Good Luck with your recession and depression maybe we will all learn a lesson in humility once it's done.

Was in TJ having work done on my car...Guy came by with a bucket and a rag and offered to wash my car for a $1...Told him not to worry about it and gave him a buck...He went bought a lil bit of cheese/a tomato/a jalapeño and some tortillas, he smiled, sat down and feasted on his simple meal.

Zoom 10 years down the road sitting at a very nice steakhouse with friends...A huge 350+lb friend is bitching about his T-Bone steak...He then decides to pick something else and has the T-Bone thrown away...WTF?

Some of us deserve the shit that is about to happen and the quicker that lesson is taught the quicker people will return to having manners and a touch of class.

Well, it won't come without massive pain, but I'm really happy to see the demise of the ex-urbs. What a stupid greedy way of life, based on cheap gas and a fear of neighbors. All these McMansions are walled off... your kids can be bored shitless and get high from inhalents all in the privacy of your own little fortress -that you're never at cause it takes you 4 hours daily to commute to your shithole job in the city. There's no town center but the strip mall, no occupation except within the self feeding realty industrial complex. I feel a tiny bit sorry for the last assholes in, but I'll be really glad to see these wasteful communities return to dust. Rant over.

Fu*k YOU AS*HOLE. Cheney has a bad heart too. Look what he has done...

DIE U PIG.

Anonymous said... my only regret is NOT FINDING THIS BLOG SOONER, lost my job, lost my house and suffered a heart problem, resulting in a quad bypass,,,am now reduced to being a renter at the ripe age of 54,oh yea I lost my life savings too,thank god for family tho they were the only ones I could count on, so 1 word of advice, keep your family close ,they are the only ones that you can depend on...THANKS KEITH FOR THE BLOG MAN!!!1

Things will correct. Billions if not trillions of dollars will be lost. Dollar will be devalued. Government imbeciles will enact copious "fixes" which will do nothing but exacerbate the problem, eventually costing the tax payers more while actually achieving nothing.

And with the trademark American short term memories, they will just find something else shiny to chase afterwards and the whole thing will start all over again.

Face it folks. We are a nation of idiots and that pool is growing while those who should be procreating choose not to for fear of the future. We are screwed.

To the black guy (sorry, you did not come up with a nickname), noodles, and all others hoping the sheeple will get a lesson in humility: I wish so too, but it won't happen. Something deeper and more serious is needed to shake the minds of the credit-card-and-heloc happy SUV-driving sheeple. I guess $10/gallon gas and a stricter income based lending policy on credit cards would do it. The former is possible, the latter is not, because banks would never give up the huge profits they rake in from people who can't afford to pay more than the minimum payment every month.

We have a long way to go until people realize there is no shame in:1. Driving a 10-year old Accord or Camry or something like that,2. Saving,3. Not having an iPod, Blackberry, expensive cell plan,...4. Skipping meals at restaurants or lattes at Starbucks,5. Using public transportation where available, 6. Resisting the urge to keep up with the Joneses7. Living in a quaint little house...that you can actually afford paying off.

FYI: I grew up with my brother in an 800 sq ft apartment and I was a happy kid.

) Death of the McMansion. People building a dream home will want something high quality, but smaller and cheaper to heat/cool, and maybe on a smaller lot closer to town. People buying McMansions in Dallas/Ft. Worth over the past 10 or 15 years were often BLOWN AWAY when they got the first summertime electric bill.

2) A house will be a place to live, not a rung on a "property ladder;" not an "investment."

3) Big boon for the generation coming of age right now. They will have to slog through a bad recession, but by the time they are ready to buy a house, the baby boomers will be dying off, the housing market will still not have recovered, and they may be able to go back to having one breadwinner per household while the kids are little.

4) The recession is going to send a lot of illegal aliens packing. None of the three presidential candidates cares about the illegal alien issue right now, but they will start caring when unemployment numbers start trending upward. They may even get serious about building the fence and enforcing the border if unemployment reaches 8 or 9 percent.

NOTE TO THE BLACK ANONYMOUS GUY who posted earlier: A middle-class black family moving into MOST middle-class white neighborhoods would NOT be harassed. A middle-class white family moving into a black neighborhood will be victimized repeatedly. The Rev. Wright and others like him convince blacks that it is understandable if blacks rip off Whitey, or beat up Whitey, because after all, Whitey is trying to give them AIDS or get them addicted to drugs or thrown into prison. If I were black, there is NO WAY that I would want my kids listening to somebody spouting retarded conspiracy theories and telling them that they will never have a decent chance at a decent life in America, because Whitey is standing in their way, just waiting to trip them up.

White people did NOT steal black people from Africa -- African blacks sold black prisoners-of-war to white men running slave ships. There is STILL slavery in many parts of Africa. Slavery ended here 150 years ago, following a civil war fought largely over the slavery issue. I am a "typical white person" -- I don't want blacks to "go back to Africa," but I do want immigration significantly reduced for a number of years. Now that the housing boom has ended, this is the perfect time for the Mexican construction workers and other illegals to go back to Mexico. Middle and working class blacks and whites will benefit if immigration is reduced. The rich just won't be able to afford a nanny, a maid and a gardener anymore.

Finally, if Katrina had been headed toward a predominantly white area, Whitey would have gotten out of town, or at least stocked up on food, water, and medications. The people of New Orleans were idiots. But it didn't help that the government of Louisiana is completely corrupt. The city of New Orleans should have had a decent evacuation plan, and obviously, they didn't.

I can't figure out how to sign myself other than "Anonymous" so just call me:

Spoiled, fat, protesting, perverted, non vietnam serving, common stock gambling, SUV driving, Baby Boomers will now find out that children given everything (themselves since the 1950's) end up with nothing.

I hope people learn to read the fine print before they sign anything .And understand what there signing before they do.

Why should they when Barack Obama will bail them out and provide free healthcare and college tuition? Barack Obama will get the government to fix what ails ya. He'll even have your kid's diapers changed for you.

Enough housing supply so almost anyone can afford a home. A return to people seeing a home as a place to live, not a goldmine to be spent on H2's and LV gear. And most importantly, a hard-earned lesson to everybody who got overwhelmed by greed.

Right there is the truth of all these blogs. You idiots don't care about anything but affording a house. You talk about morals, vanity, etc. It's all bullshit. You only care about you and only you. And even now 2 years into this supposed housing crash you still can't afford to buy. You are the losers of the world and will be the losers always.

---Right there is the truth of all these blogs. You idiots don't care about anything but affording a house. You talk about morals, vanity, etc. It's all bullshit. You only care about you and only you. And even now 2 years into this supposed housing crash you still can't afford to buy. You are the losers of the world and will be the losers always.---

I think you're missing the point here. Home prices were pushed up out of reach of so many greedy people trying to make a few bucks. Now thanks to the price of housing dying in the ass, even more people than pre-boom will be able to afford a home, and as a result, a stable place to raise their families. The only losers here are the ones who caused a recession with their greed.

Steve Martin's "Pennies From Heaven", a quirky forgotten box-office bomb set in 1934, will be rediscovered as a keen insight into what people will do or be forced to do when there is no one left to earn, borrow, steal, or con money from.